Lygon was sleeping peacefully now, with his face buried on his arm. She kissed his hair, left the room, and leaving the house sought the house of Taro.
“Taro,” said Kineia, “the strange captain sat up at our house drinking gin. He wished to go on board his ship. I went to the beach with him and he said he would swim. He was drunk. I tried to stop him, but it was no use. He had not gone more than a few canoe lengths from the shore when a shark took him. He cried once and went down.”
“Waugh,” said Taro, rubbing his eyes. “When the belly of a shark has taken a man there is no use in searching for him late at night. He was a stranger, anyway.”
It was a temperance story that explained a lot of things, among others the prohibition of alcohol on that island by order of Kineia. Lygon, returned to freedom and sobriety and happiness, never knew. Kineia, happy again like a joyous child, never told, and the ferns where the old gods of Utara once held their revels are safe to keep their secret forever.
Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the July 20, 1919 issue of The Popular Magazine.